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THE BIRTH-PLACES OF AMERICANISM 



ANNUAL ADDRESS 



BEFORE THE 



STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

OF WISCONSIN, 

Thtirsday Evening, Jamiary jo, i Syj . 



By Hon. CHARLES D. ROBINSON, of Green Bay. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE 



MADISON, WIS.; 

ATWOOD & CULVER, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 
1873. 



BIRTH-PLACES OF AMERICANISM * 



Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Perhaps the hardest part of the task with which I involved 
myself when I made the rash promise to youi* Secretary a few 
weeks ago that I would furnish an address for this occasion, 
has been the selection of a subject. The ground has been so 
thoroughly gone over by my predecessors, that there seems no 
new spot left untouched. Mr. Van Wyck has taken you 
through a pleasing journey among the monuments of history, 
as illustrating the progress of peoples. President CHADBOUEisrE 
has explained the bearing of history upon individual and na- 
tional action. Judge Ortox has probed the records of all nations 
to show the Development of Races. Judge Walker has gone 
over the earlier military history of these Northwestern States. 
Governor Salomon has discoursed upon the vicissitudes of 
new countries and new peoples, and the uses of a historical 
depository for a young State like this ; and when I turn to a 
field more especially familiar to myself — the earlier history of 
my own State — I find that to hate been occupied throughout 
its length and breadth by the exhaustive pens of your Secre- 
tar}', and of Mr. Baird, Mr. Strong, Mr. Martin and others. 

One might well retreat from the task of even reaping where 

*Iu consequBce of ill health, Col. Robinson ^^•a8 unable to visit Madison and read hi3 
Address in person: and, at his solicitation, Hon. Geo. B. Ssiitu read it in his behalf. 

L. CD. 



tliey liave gathered — and indeed I sliall not attempt it. I will 
try anotlier field, yet left untouched, which seems an appro- 
priate one, and in which I hope to interest you for at least a 
brief half hour. 

We are here a mixed people, from the four quarters of the 
eartli — rapidly assimilating, it is true — but, as we become 
engrafted upon the common American stock, wc cannot help 
adding something of our original habits, manners, and modes 
of thought. The German has brought from Fatherland to 
this his new home, his solid industry and his steadiness of 
character. These were handed down fi'om the gray old cas- 
tles, the smoking factories, and the thoroughly tilled fields of 
the old country. It was their contribution for the New World 
across the sea. And he brought w^ith him, too, the songs and 
the story of the mystic, ever-flowing Ehine. Father Khine, 
then, as the Germanic blood swells in volumes more and more 
through our veins, becomes Father Ehine to all of us — a rela- 
tion by marriage — and we can go back lovingly to his tradi- 
tions, as those of our own family. 

From France, there has come that graft most needed of all 
by this old, staid, careful, Puritan stock. It is the gaiety, the 
dash, the happy ways of Sunny France. UjDon our hill-sides 
to-day we try to reproduce the wines of the Moselle. In our 
factories we try to imitate her cunning in cloths and silks. 
And our merchants and our shop-keepers are happiest the 
nearer they can come to the gay bazaars of La Belle Paris. 

From the old mother country, England, wc have drawn our 
intense pursuit of business — perhaps I ought to say, of wealth. 
She has given more than that — she and Scotland. We go 
there, to the fountain head at Stratford-on-Avon, for the most 
wonderful and delightful encyclopedia of human character 
the world has ever known. The songs which came from that 
little cottage at Ayr still ripple as pleasantly to oar ears as 
the river beside which they were written ; and they are our 
songs by as good a right as they are Scotland's — they are the 



property of all truc-licarted, independent, — and I can almost 
say, love making, wine-drinking, sonsie people. And from 
end to end of this New World, wlio of us lias not drawnlnspi- 
ration from tlie grand, the marcking, tke cliivalric vei'se and 
story of tke Wizard of tke Nortli ? Abbotsford is one of onr 
own Meccas. And all tke ground wkick Scott has kallowed, 
aronnd tkose ckarmed Lakes, in the Canongatc, tke Ilcart of 
Mid Lotkiau, at Stirling Castle, Colingstogle's Ford, along 
tkose mystic valleys and among tkose rugged kills, is trans- 
planted to American soil, and becomes a part of American 
institutions. 

If we go wkere tke marble temples and forums of Ancient 
BiOme are being exkumed from tke askes of centuries, tkere is 
a feeling witk every American tkat it is one of tke tombs of 
kis nation's forefatkers — tkat tkougk tke bones and dust of a 
Hepublic lie mouldering tkere, tke spirit, by some metempsy- 
cliosis, kas entered into tke body of tke new country in tke 
living West. Tke glory of Eome is in wkat ske kas been. 
Her glory is like a sun wkick kas set, but wkose ligkt yet lin- 
gers on tke kill-tops of America. 

And Ireland, too. If we look into our national ckaracter, 
tkere, among our sinews, our religious inkeritances, our un- 
yielding courage, and our love for tke soil wkere our kome is, 
tkere skall we find tke moors and keatks on wkick tkey grew. 

Tkere are tke linen-makers of Belfast— tke sailors of Cork — 
tke farmers of Kerry. Tkey are all grafted into tke national 
gi'owtk. And greater tkan all, tkere are tke Groves of Blarney. 

If tke politicians, tke traders, tke newspaper folks, tke love- 
makers, owe any one tking more tkan anotker to tke institu- 
tions of tke Old World, it is to Blarney. 

It seems as if Americanism is tke talent for getting old 
things togetker so as to produce new and admirable results. 
Steam kad turned wkeels for generations, and vessels kad 
sailed tke seas for ages ; but Fulton put tkem togetker, 
and produced an Americanism. 



Electricity had long been in use before Morse made it run 
of errands over wires, bringing forth an Americanism. 

In all ages the out-cro])pings of civil and religious liberty, 
and of national independence, form the most frequent and in- 
teresting epochs of history — alas ! most of them failures, 

But here the Pilgrims set up the standard of religious free- 
dom — all narrow and insufficient though it may have been, 
yet still a step forward, and the best according to their lights 
then ; here the battles of the Eevolution were fought ; here 
h'lve landed year after 3^ear, the Argonauts, seeking the golden 
fleece of liberty ; and the ingredients, often so opposite, are 
harmonizing into the grand whole of Americanism. 

Long before this Eepublic was founded, the elements of the 
new nationality were in full being across the water. 

There was the culture and the solidity of the Englishman ; 
the vim of the Irishman ; the staid industry and discipline 
of the German ; the gaiety and ingenuity of the Frenchman ; 
the jmtience and endurance of the Norseman sailor ; the dar- 
ing, and possibly a strain of the lawlessness, of the Vikings. 
But all these, and more, were held apart by governments and 
boundaries. It was not until they met on common ground, 
free and welcome to all, that they cast their several graces, 
possibly not sifted well from their several faults, into the com- 
mon lot, and behold, the result was Americanism. 

And so, without making this a laborious argument, weary- 
ing you merely to elaborately connect the origin of things 
in the Old "World with tlieir adaptation in the New, I will 
rapidly and familiarly run over some of them, as they exist 
there, trusting to you to recognize their naturalized progeny 
here. And in starting over the field of incipient Americanism, 
where can we more appropriately begin than with Castle Blar- 
ney? 

The Blarney estate is about ten miles north fi'om Cork. It 
was once the residence of the royal race of the McCarthys, 
Barons of Blarney and Earls of Clancarty ; and the Castle, 



though upwards of five hundred years old, stauds ahnost un- 
impaired by time; with its turrets, towers, and fine proportions, 
solid and undecayed. It is not inhabited, but kept as a fam- 
ily memento, and shown by the retainers of the owner, to whom 
unlimited fees must be paid at every turn. 

On alighting at the entrance of the grounds, an Irisli fiddler 
strikes up " The Groves of Blarney," which is played with in- 
decent haste lest the visitor should get past, and not pay him 
his customary shilling. A guide leads along the avenue of 
approach to the Castle, and another shows the way to the 
gi'oves, all holding out their hands for a fee. 

Of course, you will kiss the Blarney Stone. The tradition 
is, that whoever kisses it becomes possessed with a peculiar 
" soft, i^ersuasive, wheedling eloquence" that is irresistible; 
hence the song — 

"There is a stone there 
That whoever kisses, 
Oh, he never misses 
To grow eloquent. 
'T is he may clamber 
To a lady's chamber, 
Or become a member 
Of Parliament. 

"A clever spouter 
He '11 soon turn out, or 
An out and outer. 

To be let alone! 
Don't hope to hinder him. 
Sure lie's a pilgrim 

From tlie Blarney Stone." 

The Groves are beautiful, though much shorn of tiieir 
original extent. A short distance from the Castle lies the 
lovely lake of Blarney, into which it is said that the old 
McCarthy, whose possessions were once confiscated, threw 
all his family plate — at what particular spot is a secret only 
known but to tliree of his descendants at a time — that before 



8 

one (lies, lie communicates it to anotlier of the famil}-. There 
also comes up from the bottom of the lake, now and then, 
herds of beautiful white cows to graze upon the rich pastures 
adjoining. Among the groves are the witches' kitchen, the 
witches' stairway, and many other places connected with the 
veritable histor3' of the Castle. In its basement is a dungeon. 

The family pride of these kingly McCarthys is happily not 
abated by time nor vicissitudes in life. One of them who, 
many years ago, lived near Green Bay, was an attache of 
General Cass, during some of his trips in Wisconsin ; and at 
an Indian conference held at the Cedars, on Fox Eiver, the 
General had occasion to call him. " Come here, McCarthy," 
said he. "General," said the descendant of Irish kings, "it 
makes a sight of difference whether you say ' Come here, 
McCarthy; or Captain McCarthy, will you jDlaze come 
here.' " 

The song, the fable and the music which have come to us 
from over the water — have they not become nationalized here ? 
Throughout our concert rooms, our jDarlors, our cabins ; in our 
fields, and streets and workshops, you may hear the songs of 
Burns, the creations of Shakespeare, of Goethe, and the 
music of Germany, Italy, and indeed of all the Old "World. 
Who shall say that they are not as American as they are Eng- 
lish, or Scotch, or Teutonic ? And who shall say, when there 
lands at New York an emigrant ship, with its cargo of plain 
people, that there comes not with them, and indeed more a 
part of them than the very garments they wear upon their 
backs — because they are destructible — the companionship of 
that i^oesy ? This new land could have no charms for them if 
they landed only with their spades and mattocks. They sing 
cheerily as they come ashore — 

" Boatman, take thrice thy fee, 
For spirits twain have crossed with me." 

The home of Burns is near Ayr, a village or city of 15,000 



inhabitauts, near the inoutli of the river Ayr, on the west 
coast of soutliern Scothmcl. Among its noted features arc the 
" Twa Brigs " — the two famous bridges which might to-day 
never have been known away from Ayr but for the dash of 
BuKNs' jien. There they are in full use, especially morning 
and night, when flocks of people cross them in going to and 
from their work. His cottage birth-place is one of the very 
simple kind known there as a clay biggin, and is thatched with 
straw. It has been bought, and is carefully preserved, by an 
association of his admirers, and is the Mecca, as 3'ou know, to 
which large numbers make a pilgrimage. 

The scenes of Ta:m O'SnANTEii's exploits have rare attrac- 
tions for every visitor, and you will not, if you go there, fail 
to follow over the ground from the Old Kirk of Alloway to 
the Brig 0' Down, between which Tam and his grey mare 
" Meg " made a race to escape their weird pursuers. Although 
these are celebrated in nothing but a poetic fancy, their attrac- 
tions are as solid as if Tam had really taken that ride, and the 
Deil and his imps had really given him such a scare. 

The old kirk is roofless, and is itself not a very interesting 
relic, except for the interest BuRXS has thrown around it. 
It is no wonder that the roof and rafters are all gone, if we 
believe that half the snuff boxes, and other trinkets, which are 
being sold as portions of the roof, are genuine. 

The Tam O'Shanter Inn, at Ayr, is an antique public 
house with a quaint sign above the door, marking it as the 
tavern where Tam O'Shaxter and Soutter Johnny used to 

meet 

" Ae market night, 

Tam had got planted, imco right, 
Fast by an ingle, bleezing finely. 
With reaming swats, that drank divinely, 
And at his elbow, Soutter Johnky, 
His ancient, trusty, drouthie crony." 



10 

The Brig O'Doon spans with one areli the river Doon, wliicli 
to-day rijiples by as sweetly as when Bukxs sung to it — 

" Ye banks and braes o' Bonnie Doon." 

And the Ayr, too, beside which he and his Highland Mary 
had their last meeting and final separation, 

" Where by the winding Ayr we met, 
To live one day of parting love." 

Indeed, fill the country round about Ayr, though lovel}^ 
enough of itself, has been given another beauty by the gar- 
nishings of song which Bukns has lovingly lavished upon it; 
and the visitor cannot go there without, at every step, feeling 
himself in the presence of Scotland's favorite poet. 

The home, and house, and grave of Shakespeare are the 
only attractions of Stratford-on-Avon, unless we include the 
Red Horse Inn, made famous as the place where our own 
Washington Irving wrote a portion of his Sketch Book, 
w^hile in England. In it is the little parlor called Wash- 
ington Irving's room, and which is generally assigned to 
American guests. Here are the arm-chair, the poker, on 
which is engraved " Geoffrey Crayon's Scepter," and are now 
celebrated by him in several passages of his writings. The 
" Red Horse " is a A'cry model of an English country inn — 
situated directly on the street, and white-washed to the last 
degree ; it has no street door, but is reached hy a passage-w^ay 
to the court or inner yard. A central stairway, as you enter, 
leads to the upper floor. On one side of the entrance is the 
bar-room — but yet a room without a bar — and the office where 
the bustling and rather handsome landlady holds sway. A 
landlord in that country is a myth ; the landlady is the only 
\asible authority, and is supreme. 

The public room, which answers to our American bar-room 
in .a country tavern, had two tables neatly set, with pipes, 
tobacco, glasses, etc., ready for use, arm-chairs ranged around 
the walls, the floor sanded, and a bright coal lire in the grate. 



11 

Tlic walls arc liuug round with prints. A ghuss of ale or 
other drink is obtained by ringing the bell, when a bar-maid 
appears and takes the order. 

In my visit there I was puzzled to know the use of a brass 
machine which stood on one of the tables, and while exam- 
ining it, the bar-maid came in and explained that it contained 
smoking tobacco, which could only be got at by placing a 
ha'penny in a slit at the top, and touching a spring. Of course, 
I tried it, and the effect was so magical, as well as comical, 
that I tried it again and again. It was cither the fun of tlic 
thing, so far as the box was concerned, or tlie ringing laugh 
of the handsome bar-maid, at each trial, that induced the 
several repetitions of it ; and if all my change, on hand, had 
been in ha'pennies, I am not sure but they would have gone 
into that enchanting, or enchantress's, box. 

The house, where the great poet was born, is partly of tim- 
ber and partly cement, and is in excellent preservation. There 
is nothing but the house, with undoubted claims to association 
with his name ; chairs and desks are shown, but they have no 
sort of authenticity. 

"We sat in the old fire-i)lace, which is said to have been a 
favorite place of his ; we climbed the oaken stair-case, probably 
trodden so often by his feet, and went about the grounds, 
shaded by the same old trees, perhaps, where he sat. Still, I 
am confident that no visitor feels that peculiar enthusiasm there 
as at the home of Burns. 

The country around Stratford is not hallowed by Suakes- 
peare's muse. He celebrated, not the smooth flowing Avon, 
nor the quiet fields beside it — but forts and battlc-liclds, kings, 
queens and palaces. 

Burns lovingly sung of the Ayr, the Bonnie Boon, and 
its banks and braes ; he forgot the ambitions and plottings of 
royal life, and poured out his swan-like melodies of the lives 
and loves of the lads and lassies around him. 



12 

Stratford cburcli, where Shakespeake's aslies rest, is a large 
and venerable structure, a portion of wliicli was budt in 1443. 
Upon the rough freestone slab that covers his dust, the follow- 
ing verse, said to have been composed by himself, is the only 
inscription : 

" Good friend, for Jesus' sake forbeare 
To digg the dust enclosed lieare; 
Blest be the man that spares these stones— 
And curst be he that moves my bones." 

The curse is said to have prevented the removal of his ashes 
to Westminister Abbey, for no one dared to disturb the earth 
around him. 

The church is beautifully situated in an extensive ground, 
with groves of fine old trees, on the banks of the Avon. 

Westminister Abbey contains within its storied walls a 
world of interest to Americans. It is a pantheon to which the 
whole civilized globe may go with reverence. Here kings, 
princes, poets, philosophers and warriors have silently moul- 
dered into dust, and enduring marble en»lems their mem- 
ory. Here, the rival statesmen are at peace, and the tongue 
of the orator is mute ; here, side by side, rest the crowned head 
and the chancellor — the archbishop and the actor — the divine 
and the physician — the poet and the queen. Here the first 
English Bible issued from the press. Here the magnificence 
and pomp of the regal coronation have followed the solemn 
and beautiful burial service for the dead ; and here the peal- 
ing organ and the swelling choir, reverberating through the 
loft}'' gray-grown aisles, attune the mind to solemn thoughts 
and sobriety of demeanor. 

And London Bridge. Of all London, the Thames and the 
Bridge seem to me to have the most subtle charms for us 
children of English stock. There is no one, whether he can 
read or not, but knows of the Thames. Mother Goose 
sang of it to all of ns, from our cradle to our school days. 



13 

And we shall never lose our faitli in London Bridge, wlierc 
yon and I, dear friends, have followed so often and so lovingly 
its train of wonderful mysteries. Who is there who has not 
sat upon his mother's la]), and listened to the wonderful ox 
that wouldn't drink the water — the water that wouldn't 
quench the fire — the fire that wouldn't burn the stick — the 
stick that would'nt beat the kid — the kid that wouldn't go ? 
And that perplexed driver saw by the moonlight that 'twas al- 
most midnight, and 'twas time he and kid were home an hour 
and a half ago. Tliat happened on London Bridge — and 
who, among all who are sitting here, would'nt brave the wide 
ocean to see that veritable spot ? The bridge, and the kid, 
and all, are no longer English — they are American also. 
Marry AT and Dickens have invested its waters with their 
heroes, and one may now stand there again and see Old To:m 
and Young Tom, and Jacob Faithful, David Copperfield 
and Steerfortii, Little Nell and her grandfather, the 
BooFER Lady and the Bird of Prey, all peopling it again to 
the exclusion of the more real and solid men and women. 

Perhaps the most popular of all the music resorts in mu- 
sical Vienna, is Corti's ca/e, in the Yolksgarten. It is there 
that Strauss' band plays — the veritable Strauss, whose mu- 
sic, especially waltzes, will be recognized as household words 
by my musical hearers. The concerts take place daily in the 
afternoon, Sundays not excepted. The garden itself is one 
of the great public resorts, and we found large numbers stroll- 
ing through it. A part of it, containing the cafe, was fenced 
off by a rope netting, and the price of admission was forty 
la'eutzers, or about thirty cents. Within and around the 
cafe there were two or three thousand people, men and women, 
and many families with children, eating ices, drinking coffee, 
tea and beer — mostly beer^to Strauss' bewitching music. 
The band consisted of fifty performers, and I need not say was 
one of the best ones, if not the very best, I ever heard. The 
whole scene was very striking — with the handsome cafe built 



14 

in tlic form of a pagoda, the grounds laid out witli walks and 
flower beds, the crowds of well dressed people sitting around 
the little tables, animated in conversation and gesture, and 
the sj)lendid music, could only be found, I will not say in Vi- 
enna, but in German Europe. 

But of all places in the world, I think the musical sentiment 
is most fully embodied at Naples. It is a place where every- 
thing is cheap — but music cheapest of all. One would think 
that there, at least, he had got rid of street music, that hand 
organs in those Italian streets, would be like carrying coals 
to Newcastle ; but there are more of them there, and they be- 
gin earlier in the morning, and stay later at night, and give 
more music for the same money, than any where else in the 
known world. There they are mounted on wheels and accom- 
panied by two men, one to haul the machine, and the other to 
turn the crank. Of course, Naples being a head-quarter for 
their manufacture, they are so common that none but the very 
best can command any attention, and it can almost be said 
that their music is of the highest order. The most exquisite 
airs and selections from the operas, including the gems from 
the recent ones of La Belle Helene and La Grand Duch- 
ESSE, are as common and cheap on the streets as roasted chest- 
nuts, and as well played as at the grand theatre San Carlo, 
where it costs six francs for admittance. Everybody in Italy 
understands music — and none better than the lazzaroni, who 
hang around the public places and will criticise the National 
Band or a passing organ, hissing or applauding them with 
equal unction. At the San Carlo, the opera sits enthroned. 
The orchestra has an hundred musicians; and the stage will 
hold twice as many singers. The theatre has six tiers of 
boxes, of which there are thirty^ in each tier, and their effect 
rising one above the other to a height of sixty or seventy feet, 
all profusely gilt and decorated in carving and tapestry, is 
superb. At a favorite opera, the whole audience becomes a 
part of it ; and the prima donna may be likened to the minis- 



15 

ter at one of our ciiinp meetings, who only lines the hymn, for 
the congregation to sing. In the more interesting passages at 
the San Carlo, the thousands in the boxes and parquettc are 
on their feet singing together, and the great theatre is filled 
with an atmosphere of music. 

Turn me abruptly from the ctherial to the real — from music 
to beer. They are indeed, not so far a|)art. If we sit down 
at night — as the descendants of the old German stock, and sing 
together the old songs of the Rhine and of Fatherland, we 
would be dry indeed without the chorus of clinking seidels. 
Bavaria seems to be the land ^j«/' excellence, for beer. The 
moment the frontier is crossed, this devotion to beer becomes 
perceptible in the breweries in the gi-eat towns, where they are 
almost invariably the largest and most imposing buildings, 
and the number of cellars and shops in their environs, whither 
the citizens resort to drink it. At the commencement of the 
season a surprising anxiety is everywhere manifested to dis- 
cover where the best beer may be had; and, when ascertained, 
the favored establishments where it is retailed, become the con- 
stant places of resort, till the supply is exhausted. The bus- 
iness of brewing in Bavaria maintains more that five thousand 
establishments, and nearly ninety-six million gallons are made 
annually. It £tlso forms the largest source of revenue to the 
Government, furnishing two-thirds of the whole amount. 

Perhaps the most famous beer is that made by Dkeher, in 
Yienna. His bier-keller, or place for retailing it, is a grand 
saloon, capable of seating more than a thousand persons ; and 
his brewery turns out twelve hundred and seventy barrels of 
beer every day during the five winter months. During the 
other months of the year no beer is brewed. 

In my own experience in that country, I thought it to be a 
bounden duty to get the best of everything. A ]\Iunich gen- 
tleman advised me, in looking for samples of the best beer, 
that I must not depend on the hotels, but go to a regular brew- 



16 

ery or restaurant. So I followed his advice, and a foaming 
tankard, holding something less tlian a quart, was brought to 
me by a pretty waiter girl in the height of the Bavarian cos- 
tume, wdio, custom being rather slack at the time, sat down at 
the opposite side of the table, and asked me if I came from 
America, and if I possibly might know her brother, who had 
gone somewhere beyond Ni- York, and told me how she wished 
some one would take her to that wonderful land. I did not- 
know her brother, but did know many Bavarians, any one of 
whom could make her heart glad by drinking such huge and 
such often scidels of beer ; and I apologized for not being able 
to do such a little act of politeness myself as to take her to 
America, as my w^ay home was to be very circuitous, and I 
had my hands full. with two female companions — but allevi- 
ated her sadness by leaving a handful of kreutzers on the ta- 
ble, and commending her to some less cumbered, future-com- 
ing American. 

It is in one of these beer cellars — in the old town of May- 
ence, on the Ehine — that the first known printing office 
was maugurated. Guttenberg and Schoeffer, and perhaps 
Faust, w^ orked in it. They were suspected of being in league 
with the devil, and of practising the black arts — which last, 
indeed, was true — and they were forced to set up their press in 
a damp and dismal cellar, to which the light of day, or the 
sight of passers by, could not penetrate. It will be shown to 
you now, if you inquire of a bar tender in an adjoining cellar, 
who will take you through a series of under-ground rooms, 
where malt is fermenting and where casks are cooling their 
portly sides, finally into the room hallowed by the first print- 
ing press. There was printed the first Bible — a copy of which 
still exists in the museum at Mayence. What a progeny for 
such a birth-place ! Could the stalwart, ungainly, spectacled 
GuTTEXBERG, who consecrated the new art by applying it to 
the production of the Bible, come forth from his grave to-day 



17 

and see to wliat uses it has been put, lie would likely wrapliis 
cerements about liim, and go back to mother earth with but 
one request — that she would receive him into eternal oblivion ! 
The traveler, by the ordinary routes, will usually get at Co- 
logne his first view of the Rhine valley — the river beautiful — 
the valley majestic — the countr}^ of history and legend. I have 
many times hesitated, while preparing this paper, and half re- 
solved to leave all else, and devote it wholly to that storied 
river. No wonder that the Germans from the Ehine, who sit 
down for a smoke and a drink together in the far-off Western 
World in remembrance of the Fatherland, first think and talk 
about this grand river. It brought me back to my w^estern 
home, where many and many times I have sat spell-bound by 
the enthusiastic description which those men gave of the dis- 
tant river, shining afar to them in memory, and so much far- 
ther to me in imagination, never dreaming to see it and to fol- 
low its classic shores along. No wonder that it is regarded 
almost with veneration by the people who have been reared 
by its borders, and who have regarded it as a sort of protector, 
or father, who has through all ages fostered agriculture and 
commerce, and brought to their fields its wealth of rejuvenat- 
ing waters ; which has carried their products to market, and 
returned the luxuries of the world ; upon whose shores the 
finest wines are raised ; wdiose beauty of hills, forests, and 
plains is unexcelled ; whose whole course is storied wdth legend 
and romance ; and wdiose history comes down from the far 
j)ast, through the Eoman civilization, the good and bad times 
of the feudal system, the chivalry of the crusades, the dawn- 
ing of a civilized and enlightened age ; and finally the time 
when all those little dukedoms and principalities, the remnants 
of the feudal ages, are grouped into a harmonious whole, and 
united Germany rears herself into a power not second to any 
on earth. 

2 



18 

"A thousand battles have assailed thy banks, 

But these and half their fame have passed away, 

And slaughter lieaped on high his weltering ranks — 
Their very graves are gone, and where are they ? 

Thy tide washed down the blood of yesterday, 
And all was stainless, and on thy clear stream 

Glanced with its dancing light the sunny ray." 

"With these brief glances at the homes in the Old "World, fi'om 
which emigrated some of our national traits, we will close. 
The field is so broad, and presents so much that is familiar as 
we enter upon it, that it is difficult to tell from which to select. 
The religion, the music, the literature, architecture, laws, man- 
ners and customs, liberty of conscience and of speech, — even 
our nursery stories with which we start from our cradles, and 
the traditions which we recount in later life — all — which we 
have come into the habit of calling American, have the roots 
and tendrils of their genealogies in the old land across the sea. 
They live at Eome, where the ashes of centuries have never 
quite buried the first republic — at Eunnj^mede, where Magna 
Charta sprung into deathless life — among the ruins of Jerusa- 
lem and on the plains of Palestine, which have given us our 
national religion — and everywhere along the mountains, the 
plains and the river valleys of Europe, from whence we have 
gathered, here a little and there a little, the separate attributes 
which are grouped into our national character. Who shall 
tell how near we have reached the completed whole — ^whether 
we are now at the uppermost round of destiny, with only the 
task of ultimate consolidation nigh at hand, or whether the 
tribes of outer Asia and the farthest Ind, and the isles of the 
sea, have still to cast in their lots, and make Americanism the 
nationalitv of the wide vrorld ? 



CONDITION OF THE SOCIETY. 



A synopsis of tlic Annual Report of the Society, January 
2, 1873, shows : That the receipts into the General Fund for 
the past year were $3,598.29 ; disbursements, $3,614.67, show- 
ing an over-payment of $16.38. The Binding Fund, which 
w^as last year reported at $656.38, has been increased by a do- 
nation of $20 from Rev. R. M. Hodges, and one dollar each 
from F. J. Haseltine, J. B. IIolbrook, and K H. Nichol- 
SOIS", the sale of duplicate books, the annual dues and accrued 
interest, to $829.81. The Society earnestly renews its plea 
for contributions to this important fund. 

The past and present condition of the Library are shown 
in the following table : 



Date. 



1854 
1855 
1856 
1857 
1858 
1859 
1860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
1873 



January 1 . 
January 2. 
Jamtary 1. 
January 6 
January 1. 
January 4. 
January 3 . 
January 2. 
January 2. 
January 2. 
January 2. 
January 3 : 
January 2. 
January 3. 
.January 4. 
January 1. 
January 4. 
January 3. 
January 2. 
.January 2. 



Volumes 
added. 



50 
,000 
,065 
,005 
,024 
,107 
,800 
837 
610 
544 
248 
520 
368 
923 
,462 
,838 
923 
,970 
,211 
,166 



25, 671 



Documents 
and Pam- 
phlets. 



1,000 

2,000 

300 

959 

500 

723 

1,134 

711 

2,373 

356 

226 

80G 

2,811 

1,043 

682 

6,240 

1,372 

3,789 

1,528 



Both 
together. 



50 
2,000 
3,065 
1,305 
1,983 
1,607 
2,523 
1,971 
1,321 
2,917 
604 
746 
1,174 
3,7.34 
6,505 
3,520 
7,163 
3,342 
5,000 
3,694 



28,553 54,224 



Total in 
Library . 



50 

2,050 

5,115 

6,420 

9,403 

10,010 

12,535 

14,. 504 

15, 825 

18,745 

19,346 

20,092 

21,266 

25,000 

31,505 

35.025 

42,188 

45,530 

50,530 

54, 224 



20 

The book additions of tlie year lifive been 2,166, of wliicb. 
1,591 were by i:)urcliase, and 575 by donation, a larger number 
than in any proceeding year ; 1,528 pamphlets, only 71 of 
^Yhich were obtained by purchase ; making the total book and 
pamphlet additions 3,694. Of the book additions, 109 were 
folios and 366 quartos — thus increasing the total number of 
folios now in the library to 1,826, and the quartos to 2,550 and 
both to-gether -1,376. 

Though our total additions have been considerably less than 
last year, owing to a large j)urchase in 1871, of over 2,000 
pamphlets, yet the book additions alone exceed those of last 
year by 955 volumes. 

To the newspaper department the additions have been larger 
than in any preceeding year, 40'± volumes ; making the total 
number of bound newspaper files 2,04-l. Among the addi- 
tions are a set, in quarto size, of the Holland Mercury from 
1651 to 1790, and also from 1801 to 1815. Leijden Gazette, 
quarto, from 1765 to 1782, and the Paris Gazette 1696-97— 
making 210 volumes, all but the two volumes of the Paris 
Gazette in the Holland language, forming a most fitting addi- 
tion to the Tank portion of our library — containing, doubtless, 
many quaint items of early Holland migrations to our country, 
and much curious and valuble matter pertaining to the pecun- 
iary aid furnished our struggling country during the Revolu- 
tionary war by patriotic bankers and capitalists of Holland. 

Of the remaining 194 newspaper volumes, 76 are English 
files — ±6 of them a set of Notes and Queries, devoted to gene- 
alogy and antiquities ; and 118 American files. Among the 
latter are a set of the Detroit Ga?:ette, for nearly ten consecu- 
tive years, 1819-28, at a period when it was the only newspa- 
per representative of Michigan Territory, then embracing what 
is now Wisconsin within its limits — an invaluable acquisition, 
from Thos. II. Sheldon and sisters, whose father, the late 
Hon. Jonx P. Sheldon, was one of its founders. 

Our total newspaper files arc now distributed in the three 



21 

centuries, as follows : 5-i in tlio seventeentli ; 359 in the eight- 
eenth, and 1,685 in the nineteenth. 

"We have now a total of 546 maps and atlases. 

During the year we have received the following additions to 
the Picture Gallery: Portrait of Col. Hercules L. Dous- 
:irAX, painted by C. W. Heyd, of Milwaukee, in gilt frame, 
fi'om his family ; Hon. T. 0. Howe, in gilt frame, painted by 
F. M. Pebbles, from Senator Howe ; Col. Charles H. Lar- 
RABEE, in gilt frame, painted by Saml. M. Brookes, of San 
Francisco, from Col. Larrabee ; Gen. Hexry Harndex, 
Col. S, Y. Shipman, and Gex. J as. K. Proudfit, all painted 
by James E. Stuart, St. Louis, and in gilt frames, from 
those persons respectively ; late Hon. John P. Sheldon, cab- 
inet size, from his family ; late Roswell Brown, a Dane 
County pioneer, cabinet size, from James Bell, administra- 
tor ; a fancy picture of a young girl, marked on the back 
" Wild Rose," in gilt frame, from the artist who painted it, 
Charles P. Dorward. The present number of oil paintings 
in the Gallery is 86 ; and other portraits of our pioneer set 
tiers, prominent public men, and war heroes, will, we trust, be 
early added to our collection. 

The cabinet of curiosities and Natural History has received 
many important additions. 



OBJECTS OF COLLECTION. 



The Society earnestly solicits of every editor and publisher 
of a newspaper or periodical in the State the regular transmiss- 
ion of such publication; and from all, books and pam23hlets, on 
all subjects of interest or reference ; magazines, newspaper 
files, maps, and engravings ; portraits of Wisconsin pioneers 
and other prominent personages ; war and Indian relics and 
other curiosities ; narratives of early settlement, hardships, 
border wars, and of the part borne by Wisconsin men in our 
late civil war. 



HISTORICAL CELEBRATION. 



The society has resolved to commemorate the two hundreth 
anniversary of the descent of the Wisconsin and the discovery 
of tlie Mississippi by Joliet and Marquette, on Tuesday, 
the 17th of June next, at the confluence of the Wisconsin and 
the Great Father of Waters. An event which gave suchi un- 
speakable joy to those adventurous explorers and discoverers, 
and which has been followed by consequ.ences so important, is 
well worthy of a suitable commemoration ; and from no body 
of our people could it be more appropriately initiated than by 
our Historical Society. It is also proposed, in connection with 
the celebration of the discovery of the Mississippi, to devote 
the following day as a Pioneer Jubilee for our early settlers. 

John G. Shea, LL D., of New York, the distinguished 
historian of New France, has been selected to deliver the com- 
memorative address, and the Hon. Mr. Joliet, of Canada, a 
lineal descendant of the great discoverer, invited to honor the 
occasion with his presence, and make such remarks as he may 
deem proper ; and the second day to be devoted to historical 
addresses and reminiscences on the early settlement of the 
country;the pioneers, editors and citizens of the State generall}^, 
the Governors of the adjacent States, and the Historical Socie- 
ties of the country invited to participate on the occasion. 

Messrs. Governor Washburx, Draper, Ortok, Mills, 
Hastings, Proudfit, Eoss, Durrie and Chapman were ap- 
pointed a committee of arrangements, with full power to 
appoint sub committees, and act in all matters pertaining to 
the celebration. 



OFFICERS OF THE SOCIETY. 
1873. 



PRESIDENT. 

Hon. ALEXANDER MITCHELL, Milwaukee. 

VICE PRESIDENTS: 



ECK. HE NRY S. BAIRD, Gkeen Bay. 
I. A. LAP HAM, LL B., Milwaukee. 
Hox. J. R. DOOLITTLE, Racine. 
Ho.v. J. T. LEWIS, CoLUMUDS. 
Ho.N-. U. S. ORTON, LL D., Madison. 



Hon. JAS. SUTHERLAND, Janesville. 
Hon. H. D.BARRON, St. Ciwix Falls. 
Hon. M. L. MARTIN, Green Bat. 
Hon. a. G. MILLER, Milwaukee. 
Hon. J. n. ROUNTREE, Platteville. 



HONORARY VICE PRESIDENTS: 

1. Hon. CYRUS WOODMAN, Mass. 4. Hon. JOHN CATLIN, New Jersey. 

2. Hon. PERRY H. SMITH, Illinois. 5. Hon. STEPHEN TAYLOR, Penn. 

3. Hon. H. S. RANDALL, New York. 6. Hon. A. C. DODGE, Iowa. 

.7. Hon. L. J. FARWELL, Missouri. 

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY, 

LYMAN C. DRAPER. 

recording secretary, 
Col. frank H. FJRMIN. 

treasurer, 

A. H. :m:ain. 

LIBRARIAN, 

DANIEL S. DURRIE. 
CURATORS: 



Hon. C. C. WASHBURN, 
Governor. 

FOR ONE YEAR. 

Gen. Simeon'Mills,' 
Hon. Geo. B. Smith, 
Gen. G. P. Delaplaine, 
Dr. Joseph Hobbins, 
Hon. Andrew Proudfit, 

S. U. PiNNET. 

Hon. E. W. Ketes, 
Hon. James L. Hill, 
Hon. S. D. Hastings. 



EX-OFFICIO. 

Hon. Ll. BREESE, 

Secretary of Stale. 

FOR TWO YEARS. 

Gov. L. Faiuciiild, 
Hon. E. B. Dean, 
CoL S. V. Shipman, 
Hon. L. B. Vilas, 
Gen. D. Atwood, 

O. M. CONOVER, 

Hon. John Y. Smith, 
B. J. Stevens, 
Prof. Wm. F. Allen. 



Hon. HENRY BiETZ, 

State Treasurer. 

FOR THREE YEARS. 
Hon. D. Worthington, 

C. P. C'HAPyAN, 

Prof. J. D. BiTLER, LL D., 

PrOf.S.H.CARPENTER.LL D., 

Hon. James Ross, 
N. B. Van Syke, 
Hon. J. D. Guunee, 
Maj. J. O. Culver, 
Isaac Lyon. 



24 



STANDING COMMITTEES:— 1873 

Publications — 

Draper, G. B. Smith, Butler, CARPE>-TEn aud Culver. 

Auditing Accounts — 

Hastings, Firmin, Ross and Chapman. 

Finance — 

Mills, B^tz, Hastings, Van Slyke and Gutinee. 

Endoicment — 

Mills, Pairchild, Van Slyke, Delaplaine, "VVorthington, At- 
wooD, PiNNEY, Orton, Hill, Proudpit and Draper. 

Literary Ezclianges — 

DuRRiE, Firmin, Hobbins and Breese. 

Cabinet — 

Lyon, Shipman, Allen, Stevens, Keyes and Durrie. 

Natural Hi story — 

Lapham, J. Y. Smith, Hobbins, Delaplaine and Stevens. 

Printing — 

Ross, Carpenter, Culver, Keyes and John Y. Smith. 

Art Gallery — 

Carpenter, Delaplaine, Mills, Fairchild, Breese, Vilas aud 
Shipman. 

Historical Narratitcs — 

Pinney, Fairchild, Orton, Shipman and Draper. 

Indian Ilistory and Nomenclature — 

Chapman, John Y. Smith, Butler, Allen, Hill and Stevens. 

Lectures and Essays — 

Ross, Butler, Worthington, Conover and Durrie. 

Soliciting Committee — 

Chapman, Hobbins, Shipman, B.etz and Dean. 

Annual Addresses — 

G. B. Smith, Ross, Gurnee, Fairchild and Pinney. 

Membership Nominatians — 

Mills, Breese, Vilas, Gup.nee and Proudfit. 

Library Purchases and Fixtures — 
Draper, Conover and Durrie. 

Obituaries — 

Atwood, Delaplaine, Ross, Dean and Hastings. 



THE BIRTH-PLACES OF AMERICANISM 



ANNUAL ADDRESS 



BEFOllE THE 



STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY 

OF WISCONSIN, 

Thursday Evening, January jo, 18 J;^. 
Hv Hon. CHARLES D. ROBINSON, of Green Bay. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE 



MADISON, WIS.; 

ATVVOOD A- CULVER. PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 

1873- 



L- 



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